PS 1603 
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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 



! Slaelfl=S..Ve>05 

UNITED STATES OF AMEKIOA. 



iMERSON YEAR BOOK 



SELECTIONS 
FOR EVERY DAY IN THE YEAR 

/ FROM THE ESSAYS OF 

RALPH WALDO EMERSON 



BY 
A. R. C. 



■ He is thiia the medium of the ^^ '"'■^0. 

highest influence to all who 
are not on the same lever' 



^s^^' 



NEW-YORK 

E. p. DUTTON & COMPANY 

3 I WEST TWENTY-THIRD ST. 
1893 









Copyright, 
E. P. DUTTON & Co. 



/2-3/f^6 



Press of J. J. Little & Cc 
Astor Place, New York 






JANUARY. 

I awoke this morning with devout thanksgiving for 
my friends, the old and the new. 



EMERSON YEAR BOOK. 3 

January First. 

The world exists for the education of each 
man. There is no stage or state of society 
or mode or action in history, to which there 
is not somewhat corresponding in his hfe. 
Everything tends in a wonderful manner to 
abbreviate itself and yield its own virtue to 
him. 

January Second. 

We have the same interest in condition 
and character. We honor the rich, because 
they have externally the freedom, power, 
and grace which we feel to be proper to 
man, proper to us. 

January Third. 

All literature writes the character of the 
wise man. Books, monuments, pictures, con- 
versation, are portraits in which he finds the 
lineaments he is forming. 



EMERSON YEAR BOOK. 



Jamiary Fourth. 

A man is the whole encyclopsedia of 
facts. The creation of a thousand forests 
is in one acorn, and Egypt, Greece, Rome, 
Gaul, Britain, America, lie folded already 
in the first man. 



January Fifth. 

A man should learn to detect and watch 
that gleam of light which flashes across his 
mind from within, more than the lustre of 
the firmament of bards and sages. 



Ja?iuafy Sixth. 

There is a time in every man's education 
when he arrives at the conviction that envy 
is ignorance. 



EMERSON YEAR BOOK. 



January Sevejit/i. 



Every decent and well-spoken individual 
affects and sways me more than is right. 



January Eighth. 

Virtues are, in the popular estimate, rather 
the exception than the rule. There is the 
man and his virtues. Men do what is called 
a good action, as some piece of courage or 
charity, much as they would pay a fine in 
expiation of daily non-appearance on parade. 



January Ninth. 

My hfe is for itself and not for a spec- 
tacle. 



EMERSON YEAR BOOK. 



Jafiimry Tenth. 

A character is like an acrostic or Alex- 
andrian stanza ; — read it forward, back- 
ward, or across, it spells the same thing. 



January Eleventh. 

He who has a thousand friends has not a 

friend to spare, 
And he who has one enemy will meet him 

everywhere. 



January Tivelfth. 

If any one will but take pains to observe 
the variety of actions to which he is equally 
incHned in certain moods of mind, and those 
to which he is averse, he will see how deep 
is the chain of affinity. 



EMERSON YEAR BOOK. 



January Thirteenth. 



It has been said that " common souls pay 
with what they do ; nobler souls with what 
they are." And why? Because a profound 
nature awakens in us by its actions and 
words, by its very looks and manners, the 
same power and beauty that a gallery of 
sculpture, or of pictures, addresses. 



January Fourteenth. 

Honor is venerable to us because it is no 
ephemeris. It is always ancient virtue. We 
worship it to-day because it is not of to-day. 
We love it and pay it homage, because it is 
not a trap for our love and homage, but is 
self-dependent, self-derived, and therefore of 
an old immaculate pedigree, even if shown 
in a young person. 



EMERSON YEAR BOOK. 



Ja7utary Fifteetith. 



We are afraid of truth, afraid of fortune, 
afraid of death, and afraid of each other. 



Jamiary Sixteenth. 

Prayer is the contemplation of the facts of 
hfe from the highest point of view. It is the 
sohloquy of a beholding and jubilant soul. 
It is the spirit of God pronouncing his works 
good. 



January Seve7iteenth. 

He who travels to be amused, or to get 
somewhat which he does not carry, travels 
away from himself, and grows old even in 
youth among old things. 



EMERSON YEAR BOOK. 9 

January Eighteenth. 
Insist on yourself ; never imitate. 

January Nineteenth. 

Society never advances. It recedes as 
fast on one side as it gains on the other. It 
undergoes continual changes ; it is barba- 
rous, it is civilized, it is Christianized, it is 
rich, it is scientific ; but this change is not 
amelioration. For everything that is given, 
something is taken. Society acquires new 
arts, and loses old instincts. 

January Twe?itieth. 
Every great man is unique. 



lO EMERSON YEAR BOOK. 



Ja?itiary Twe?ity -first. 

Nothing can bring you peace but yourself. 
Nothing can bring you peace but the tri- 
umph of your principles. 

January Twenty-second. 

Man's the elm, and Wealth the vine ; 
Stanch and strong the tendrils twine : 
Though the frail ringlets thee deceive, 
None from its stock that vine can reave. 
Fear not, then, thou child infirm, 
There's no god dare wrong a worm. 
Laurel crowns cleave to deserts, 
And power to him who power exerts ; 
Hast not thy share? On winged feet, 
Lo ! it rushes thee to meet : 
And all that Nature made thy own, 
Floating in air or pent in stone, 
Will vine the hills and swim the sea, 
And, like thy shadow, follow thee. 



EMERSON YEAR BOOK. 



January Twenty-third. 

Every sweet hath its sour ; every evil, its 
good. 



Jamiaiy Twenty -fotirtJi. 

Men seek to be great ; they would love 
offices, wealth, pov/er, and fame. They think 
that to be great is to possess one side of 
nature, the sweet, without the other side, 
the bitter. 



January Twenty-fifth. 

Proverbs, like the sacred books of each 
nation, are the sanctuary of the intuitions. 



12 EMERSON YEAR BOOK. 



January Twenty-sixth. 

A man cannot speak but he judges him- 
self. With his will, or against his will, he 
draws his portrait to the eye of his compan- 
ions by every word. Every opinion reacts 
on him who utters it. 



January Twenty -seventh. 

If you are wise you will dread a prosper- 
ity which only loads you with more. 



Jajiuary Twenty -eighth. 

He is base — and that is the one base thing 
in the universe — to receive favors, and ren- 
der none. 



EMERSON YEAR BOOK. 



13 



January T'weTiiy-7ii)ith. 
A great man is always willing to be little. 



Jafttiary Thirtieth. 

A new person is to me a great event and 
hinders me from sleep. 



January Thirty-first. 

I do not wish to treat friendships daintily, 
but with roughest courage. When they are 
real, they are not glass threads or frostwork, 
but the sohdest thing we know. 



( 

I 



FEBRUARY. 



N'ot less excelle)it, 7vas the charm, last evening, of 
a January sunset. 



EMERSON YEAR BOOK. ly 



February First. 

Every man alone is sincere. At the en- 
trance of a second person, hypocrisy begins. 



February Second. 

I wish that friendship should have feet, as 
well as eyes and eloquence. It must plant 
itself on the ground, before it vaults over the 
moon. I wish it to be a httle of a citizen 
before it is quite a cherub. 



Februa7y Third. 

We talk sometimes of a great talent for 
conversation, as if it were a permanent prop- 
erty in some individuals. Conversation is 
an evanescent relation, — no more. 



1 8 EMERSON YEAR BOOK. 



February Fourth. 

Better be a nettle in the side of your 
friend than his echo. 



February Fifth. 

I do then with my friends as I do with 
my books. I would have them where I can 
find them, but I seldom use them. 



February Sixth. 



Prudence is the virtue of the senses. It 
is the science of appearances. It is the out- 
ward action of the inward life. 



EMERSON YEAR BOOK. 



February Seventh. 

If a man lose his balance, and immerse 
himself in any trades or pleasures for their 
own sake, he may be a good wheel or pin, 
but he is not a cultivated man. 



February Eighth. 

Time, which shows so vacant, indivisible, 
and divine in its coming, is slit and peddled 
into trifles and tatters. 



February Ninth. 

Then climate is a great impediment to idle 
persons: we often resolve to give up the 
care of the weather, but still we regard the 
clouds and the rain. 



20 EMERSON YEAR BOOK. 



February Tenth. 

The domestic man, who loves no music so 
well as his kitchen clock, and the airs which 
the logs sing to him as they burn on the 
hearth, has solaces which others never dream 
of. 



February Eleventh. 

The hard soil and four months of snow 
make the inhabitant of the northern temper- 
ate zone wiser and abler than his fellow who 
enjoys the fixed smile of the tropics. 



February Twelfth. 

Let a man keep the law, — any law, — and 
his way will be strown with satisfaction. 



EMERSON YEAR BOOK. 



February Thirteenth, 



There is more difiEerence in the quahty of 
our pleasures than in the amount. 



February Fourteenth. 

Our American character is marked by a 
more than average dehght in accurate per- 
ception, which is shown by the currency of 
the byword, *' No mistake." 



February Fifteenth. 

Come see the north wind's masonry, 
Out of an unseen quarry ever more 
Furnished with tile, the fierce artificer 
Curves his white bastions with projected roof 
Round every windward stake, on tree, or door. 






2 2 EMERSON YEAR BOOK. 



February Sixteenth. 

For nature is not always tricked in holiday 
attire, but the same scene which yesterday 
breathed perfume and glittered as if for 
the frolic of the nymphs, is overspread with 
melancholy to-day. 

February Se7'entee?ith. 

The misery of man appears like childish 
petulance, when we explore the steady and 
prodigal provision that has been made for 
his support and dehght on this green ball 
which floats him through the heavens. 



February Eighteenth. 



In this country, we are very vain of our 
political institutions, which are singular in 
this, tl^at they sprung, within the memory of 
living men, from the character and condition 



EMERSON YEAR BOOK. 



23 



of the people, which they still express with 
sufficient fidehty, — and we ostentatiously pre- 
fer them to any other in history. 

February Nitieteenth. 

Great men or men of great gifts you shall 
easily find, but symmetrical men, never. 

February Twentieth. 

Truth is the summit of being : justice is 
the application of it 'to affairs. 

February Twenty-first. 

A healthy soul stands united with the Just 
and the True, as the magnet arranges itself 
with the pole, so that he stands to all be- 
holders like a transparent object betwixt 
them and the sun, and who so journeys to- 
wards the sun, journeys towards that person. 



24 EMERSON YEAR BOOK. 



February Twenty -seco7id. 

Men of character like to hear of their 
faults. 



February Twenty -third. 

Society is frivolous, and shreds its day into 
scraps, its conversation into ceremonies and 
escapes. 



February Twenty -fourth. 

In nature, there are no false valuations. 
A pound of water in the ocean-tempest has 
no more gravity than in a midsummer pond. 



EMERSON YEAR BOOK. 25 



February Twefity-fifth. 

We have no pleasure in thinking of a be- 
nevolence that is only measured by its works. 



February Twenty-sixth. 

Character may be ranked as having its 
natural place in the north. It shares the 
magnetic currents of the system. The feeble 
souls are drawn to the south or negative 
pole. 



February Twenty-seventh. 

What fact more conspicuous in modern 
history, than the creation of the gentleman? 



26 EMERSON YEAR BOOK. 



February Twejity -eighth. 

Thus grows up Fashion, an equivocal sem- 
blance, the most puissant, the most fantastic 
and frivolous, the most feared and followed, 
and which words and violence assault in 



February Twenty -ninth. 

Defect in manners is usually the defect of 
fine perceptions. 



MARCH. 



The wind so7vs the seed. 



EMERSON YEAR BOOK. 29 

March First. 

Crossing a bare common in snow puddles, 
at twilight, under a clouded sky, without hav- 
ing in my thoughts any occurrence of special 
good fortune, I have enjoyed a perfect ex- 
hilaration. I am glad to the brink of fear. 



March Second. 

A gentleman makes no noise : a lady is 
serene. 



March Thb'd. 

One may be too punctual and too precise. 
He must leave the omniscience of business 
at the door, when he comes into the palace 
of beauty. 



30 



EMERSON YEAR BOOK. 



March Fourth. 



The person who screams, or uses the su- 
perlative degree, or converses with heat, is 
quickly left alone. 



March Fifth. 

I pray my companion if he wishes for 
bread, to ask me for bread, and if he wishes 
for sassafras or arsenic, to ask me for them, 
and not to hold out his plate as if I knew 
already. 



Ma7rh Sixth. 

Accuracy is essential to beauty, and quick 
perceptions to pohteness, but not too quick 
perceptions. 



EMERSON YEAR BOOK. 



March Seventh. 



31 



The secret of success in Society is a cer- 
tain heartiness and sympathy. 



March Eighth. 

Even the h"ne of heroes is not utterly ex- 
tinct. There is still ever some admirable 
person in plain clothes, standing on the 
wharf, who jumps in to rescue a drowning 
man. 



March Ninth. 

Gifts of one who loved me, — 
'Twas high time they came ; 

When he ceased to love me, 
Time they stopped for shame. 



32 



EMERSON YEAR BOOK. 



Mai'ch Tenth. 



It is said that the world is in a state of 
bankruptcy, that the world owes the world 
more than the world can pay, and ought to 
go into chancery and be sold. 



March Eleve7ith. 

Nature cannot be surprised in undress. 
Beauty breaks in everywhere. 



March Tivelfth. 

The waving of the boughs in the storm is 
new to me, and old. It takes me by sur- 
prise, and yet is not unknown. Its effect is 
like that of a higher thought or a better emo- 
tion coming over me, when I deemed I was 
thinking justly or doing right. 



EMERSON YEAR BOOK. t^t^ 



Mairh Thirteenth. 

One thing is forever good ; 
That one thing is success, — 
Dear to the Eumenides, 
And to all the heavenly brood. 



March Fourteefith. 

Scatter-brained and " afternoon men " 
spoil much more than their own affair, in 
spoihng the temper of those who deal with 
them. 



March Fifteenth. 

Beauty should be the dowry of every man 
and woman, as invariably as sensation ; but 
it is rare. 



34 EMERSON YEAR BOOK. 



March Sixteenth. 



Genius should be the child of genius, and 
every child should be inspired ; but now it 
is not to be predicted of any child, and no- 
where is it pure. 



March Seventeenth. 

He that despiseth small things will perish 
by litde and httle. 



March Eighteenth. 

A man of genius of an ardent tempera- 
ment, reckless of physical laws, self-indul- 
gent, becomes presently unfortunate, queru- 
lous, a '' discomfortable cousin," a thorn to 
himself and to others. 



EMERSON YEAR BOOK. 35 

March Ni7ietee?ith. 
The eye of prudence may never shut. 



March Tiventieth. 

In skating over thin ice, our safety is in 
our speed. 



March Twenty-first. 

How much of human hfe is lost in wait- 
ing! let him not make his fellow-creatures 
wait. 



36 EMERSON YEAR BOOK. 



March Twenty-second. 

How many words and promises are prom- 
ises of conversation! let his be words of 
fate. 



March Twenty-third. 

We must not try to write the laws of any 
one virtue, looking at that only. Human 
nature loves no contradictions, but is sym- 
metrical. 



March Twefity-foiirth. 

Every violation of truth is not only a sort 
of suicide in the liar, but is a stab at the 
health of human society. 



EMERSON YEAR BOOK. 37 



March Twenty -fifth. 

Trust men, and they will be true to you ; 
treat them greatly, and they will show them- 
selves great, though they make an exception 
in your favor to all their rules in trade. 



March Twenty-sixth. 

Entire self-possession may make a battle 
very little more dangerous to life than a 
match at foils or at football. 



March Ttventy -seventh. 

The terrors of the storm are chiefly con- 
fined to the parlor and the cabin. 



^S EMERSON YEAR BOOK. 



March Twe?iiy -eighth. 

In the occurrence of unpleasant things 
among neighbors, fear comes readily to heart, 
and magnifies the consequence of the other 
party ; but it is a bad counsellor. 



March Twenty-ninth. 

Life is a festival only to the wise. Seen 
from the nook and chimney-side of prudence 
it wears a ragged and dangerous front. 



Majrh Thirtieth. 

Heroism feels and never reasons, and 
therefore is always right. 



EMERSON YEAR BOOK. 



March Thirty-first. 



39 



A great man scarcely knows how he 
dines, how he dresses ; but without raihng 
or precision, his Hving is natural and poetic. 



APRIL. ^ 

Early or late, the falling rain 

Arrived in April, time to swell his grain. 



EMERSON YEAR BOOK. 43 



April First. 

For me, in showers, in sweeping showers, the 

Spring 
Visits the valley ; — break away the clouds, — 
I bathe in the morn's soft and silvered air. 
And loiter wiUing by yon loitering stream. 
Sparrows far off, and nearer, April's bird, 
Blue-coated, — flying before from tree to tree. 
Courageous sing a delicate overture 
To lead the tardy concert of the year. 

April Second. 

The stars awaken a certain reverence, be- 
cause though always present, they are inac- 
cessible. 

April Third. 

Not the sun or the summer alone, but 
every hour and season yields its tribute of 
dehght ; for every hour and change corre- 



44 EMERSON YEAR BOOK. 

spends to and authorizes a different state of 
the mind, from breathless noon to grimmest 
midnight. 

April Fourth. 

In the tranquil landscape, and especially 
in the distant hne of the horizon, man be- 
holds somewhat as beautiful as his own 
nature. 

April Fifth. 

The greatest delight which the fields and 
woods minister, is the suggestion of an oc- 
cult relation between man and the vegetable. 
I am not alone and unacknowledged. They 
nod to me and I to them. 

April Sixth. 

The land we live in has no interest so dear, 
if it knew its want, as the fit consecration of 
days to reason and thought. 



EMERSON YEAR BOOK. ac 



Ap7'il Scvejith. 

Where there is no vision, the people per- 
ish. 



April Eighth. 

We are a puny and a fickle folk. Avarice, 
hesitation, and following are our diseases. 
The rapid wealth which hundreds in the com- 
munity acquire in trade, or by the incessant 
expansion of our population and arts, en- 
chants the eyes of all the rest. 



ApiHI Ninth. 

Whilst the multitude of men degrade each 
other, and gw^ currency to desponding doc- 
trines, the scholar must be a bringer of hope, 
and must reinforce man against himself. 



46 EMERSON YEAR BOOK. 



April Tenth. 

Great men do not content us. It is their 
solitude, not their force, that makes them 
conspicuous. There is somewhat indigent 
and tedious about them. They are poorly 
tied to one thought. If they are prophets, 
they are egotists ; if poHte and various, they 
are shallow. 

April Eleventh, 

As our soils and rocks He in strata, con- 
centric strata, so do all men's thinkings run 
laterally, never vertically. 

April Twelfth. 

Every earnest glance we give to the reali- 
ties around us, with intent to learn, proceeds 
from a holy impulse, and is really songs of 
praise. 



EMERSON VEAR BOOK. 47 

April Thirteenth. 

The ocean is everywhere the same, but it 
has no character until seen with the shore or 
the ship. 



April Fourteenth. 

An individual man is a fruit which it cost 
all the foregoing ages to form and ripen. 



April Fifteenth. 

It was always the theory of literature, that 
the word of a poet was authoritative and 
final. He was supposed to be the mouth of 
a divine wisdom. We rather envied his cir- 
cumstance than his talent. 



48 EMERSON YEAR BOOK. 



April Sixteenth. 

I conceive a man as always spoken to from 
behind, and unable to turn his head and see 
the speaker. 



April Seventeenth. 

He who is in love, is wise and becoming 
wiser, sees newly every time he looks at the 
object beloved, drawing from it with his eyes 
and his mind those virtues which he pos- 
sesses. 



April Eighteenth. 

All your learning of all literature would 
never enable you to anticipate one of its 
thoughts or expressions, and yet each is 
natural and famihar as household words. 



EMERSON YEAR BOOK. 49 



April Nineteenth. 

And the reason why all men honor love, is 
because it looks up and not down ; aspires 
and not despairs. 



April Twentieth. 

Genius sheds wisdom like perfume, and 
advertises us that it flows out of a deeper 
source than the foregoing silence, that it 
knows so deeply and speaks so musically, 
because it is itself a mutation of the thing it 
describes. It is sun and moon and wave 
and fire in music, as astronomy is thought 
and harmony in masses of matter. 



April Twetity-first. 
When thought is best, there is most of it. 



50 EMERSON YEAR BOOK. 



April Twenty -second. 

Life alone can impart life ; and though 
we should burst, we can only be valued as 
we make ourselves valuable. 



April Twenty -third. 

There is no luck in hterary reputation. 
They who make up the final verdict upon 
every book, are not the partial and noisy 
readers of the hour when it appears ; but a 
court as of angels, a pubhc not to be bribed, 
not to be entreated, and not to be overawed, 
decides upon every man's title to fame. Only 
those books come down which deserve to 
last. 

April Twenty -fourth. 

Human character evermore publishes it- 
self. The most fugitive deed and word, the 



EMERSON YEAR BOOK. 5 I 

mere air of doing a thing, the intimated pur- 
pose, expresses character. 

April Tweiity -fifth. 

Faces never He, it is said. No man need 
be deceived, who will study the changes of 
expression. 

April Twenty-sixth. 

A man passes for that he is worth. Very 
idle is all curiosity concerning other people's 
estimate of us, and all fear of remaining un- 
known is not less so. 



April Twe?ity-seve7ith. 

When a man speaks the truth in the spirit 
of truth, his eye is as clear as the heavens. 
When he has base ends, and speaks falsely, 
the eye is muddy and sometimes asquint. 



52 E3IERSON YEAR BOOK. 

April Twenty-eighth. 

Thou shalt command us all, — 
April's cowslip, Summer's clover. 

To the gentian in the fall, 

Blue-eyed pet of a blue-eyed lover. 



April Tiventy-tiiiith. 
Never was a sincere word utterly lost. 

April Thirtieth, 

A fop may sit in any chair of the world, 
nor be distinguished for his hour from Homer 
and Washington ; but there need never be 
any doubt concerning the respective ability 
of human beings. 



MAY. 

Omi>ard and nearer rides the sun of May. 



EMERSON YEAR BOOK. 55 



May First. 

The south-wind brings 
Life, sunshine and desire, 

And on every mount and meadow 
Breathes aromatic fire. 



May Second. 

Pretension never wrote an Ihad, nor drove 
back Xerxes, nor Christianized the world, 
nor abohshed slavery. 



May Third. 

If you would not be known to do any- 
thing, never do it. A man may play the 
fool in the drifts of a desert, but every grain 
of sand shall seem to see. 



56 EMERSON YEAR BOOK. 



May Fourth. 

Common men are apologists for men ; they 
bow the head, excuse themselves with prolix 
reasons, and accumulate appearances, be- 
cause the substance is not. 



May Fifth. 

We call the poet inactive, because he is 
not a president, a merchant, or a porter. 

May Sixth. 

The epochs of our life are not in the visible 
facts of our choice of a calling, our marriage, 
our acquisition of an ofifice, and the hke, but 
in a silent thought by the way-side as we 
walk ; in a thought which revises our entire 
manner of life, and says, "Thus hast thou 
done, but it were better thus." 



EMERSON YEAR BOOK. 57 



May Sevejith. 

The rich mind Hes in the sun and sleeps, 
and is Nature. To think is to act. 



May Eighth. 

Let a man believe in God, and not in 
names and places and persons. 



May Ninth. 

The delicious fancies of youth reject least 
savor of a mature philosophy, as chilling with 
age and pedantry their purple bloom. 



58 EMERSON YEAR BOOK. 



May Te?it/i. 

Each man sees over his own experience a 
certain stain of error, whilst that of other men 
looks fair and ideal. 



May Ekve?tth. 

The strong bent of nature is seen in pro- 
portion which this topic of personal relation 
usurps in the conversation of society. 



May Twelfth. 

Nature never wears a mean appearance. 
Neither does the wisest man extort her secret, 
and lose his curiosity by finding out all her 
perfection. 



EMERSON YEAR BOOK. 59 



May Thirteenth. 

The flowers, the animals, the mountains re- 
flected the wisdom of his best hour, as much 
as they had dehghted the simplicity of his 
childhood. 



May Fourteenth. 

Most persons do not see the sun. At least 
they have a very superficial seeing. The sun 
illuminates only the eye of the man, but 
shines into the eye and the heart of the 
child. 



May Fifteenth. 

If the single man plant himself indom- 
itably on his instincts, and there abide, the 
huge world will come round to him. 



6o EMERSON YEAR BOOK. 



May Sixteenth. 

There are days which occur in this chmate, 
at almost any season of the year, wherein the 
world reaches its perfection, when the air, the 
heavenly bodies, and the earth make a har- 
mony, as if Nature w^ould indulge her off- 
spring. 

May Seventeenth. 

Cities give not the human senses room 
enough. 

May Eighteenth. 

He who knows the most, he who knows 
what sweets and virtues are in the ground, 
the water, the plants, the heavens, and how 
to come at these enchantments, is the rich 
and royal man. 



EMERSON YEAR BOOK. 6 1 



May Nineteenth. 

The difference between landscape and 
landscape is small, but there is great differ- 
ence in the beholders. 



May Twentieth. 

The green grass is bowing, 
The morning wind is in it ; 

'Tis a tune worth thy knowing, 
Though it change every minute. 



May Twenty -first. 

The stream of zeal sparkles with real fire, 
and not with reflex rays of sun and moon. 



62 EMERSON YEAR BOOK. 



May Twenty -second. 

Not less remarkable is the overfaith of 
each man in the importance of what he has 
to do or say. The poet, the prophet, has a 
higher value for what he utters than any 
hearer, and therefore it gets spoken. 



May Tiventy-third. 
All promise outruns the performance. 

May Twenty -fourth. 

Society always consists, in greatest part, of 
young and foolish persons. The old, who 
have seen through the hypocrisy of courts 
and statesmen, die, and leave no wisdom to 
their sons. 



EMERSON YEAR BOOK. 63 



May Twenty-fifth. 

Things have their laws, as well as men ; 
and things refuse to be trifled with. 



May Twenty-sixth. 

Cover up a pound of earth so cunningly, 
divide and subdivide it ; melt it to liquid, 
convert it to gas; it will always weigh a 
pound. 



May Twenty -seventh. 

The boundaries of personal influence it is 
impossible to fix, as persons are organs of 
moral or supernatural force. 



64 * EMERSON YEAR BOOK. 



May Twenty-eighth. 

All forms of government symbolize an im- 
mortal government, common to all dynasties 
and independent of number, perfect where 
two men exist, perfect where there is only 
one man. 



May Twenty -ninth. 

Of all debts, men are least willing to pay 
the taxes. What a satire is this on govern- 
ment ! Everywhere they think they get their 
money's worth, except for these. 



May Thirtieth. 

Every thought which genius and piety 
throw into the world, alters the world. 



EMERSON YEAR BOOK. 65 



May Thirty -first. 

But each of us has some talent, can do 
somewhat useful, or graceful, or formidable, 
or amusing, or lucrative. 



JUNE. 

A gay and pleasant sound is the whetting of the 
scythe in the mornings of June. 



EMERSON YEAR BOOK. 69 



Jime First. 

The world rolls; the circumstances vary 
every hour. 



Jtme Second. 

Let the soul be assured that somewhere in 
the universe it should rejoin its friend, and 
it would be content and cheerful alone for a 
thousand years. 



June Third. 

Friendship, like the immortality of the 
soul, is too good to be beHeved. 



yo EMERSON YEAR BOOK. 



Jime Fourth. 

Almost every man we meet requires some 
civility, — requires to be humored ; he has 
some fame, some talent, some whim of rehg- 
ion or philanthropy in his head, that is not 
to be questioned, and which spoils all con- 
versation with him. 



June Fifth. 

Two may talk, and one may hear; but 
three cannot take part in a conversation of 
the most sincere and searching sort. 



Jime Sixth. 

What your heart thinks great is great. The 
soul's emphasis is always right. 



EMERSON YEAR BOOK. 7 I 

Jujie Seventh. 

If a teacher have any opinion which he 
wishes to conceal, his pupils will become 
as fully indoctrinated into that as into any 
which he publishes. 



June Eighth. 

I love and honor Epaminondas, but I do 
not wish to be Epaminondas. I hold it more 
just to love the world of this hour, than the 
world of his hour. 



June Ninth. 

One piece of the tree is cut for a weather- 
cock, and one for the sleeper of a bridge ; 
the virtue of the wood is apparent in both. 



72 EMERSON YEAR BOOK. 



June Tenth. 

We paint those qualities which we do not 
possess. The poet admires the man of en- 
ergy and tactics ; the merchant breeds his 
son for the church or the bar ; and where a 
man is not vain and egotistic, you shall find 
what he has not by his praise. 



Jiuie Eleve7ith. 

In the presence of nature, a wild delight 
runs through the man, in spite of real sor- 
rows. 



June Twelfth. 

Inaction is cowardice, but there can be no 
scholar without the heroic mind. 



EMERSON YEAR BOOK. 73 



Jtifie Thirteenth. 

The scholar shames us by his bifold he. 
Whilst something higher than prudence is 
active, he is admirable ; when common-sense 
is wanted, he is an encumbrance. 



Jtme Fourteenth. 

To-morrow will be like to-day. Life 
wastes itself whilst we are preparing to Hve. 



June Fifteeiith. 

But hospitality must be for service, and 
not for show, or it pulls down the host. 



74 EMERSON YEAR BOOK. 

June Sixteenth. 

Be neither chided nor flattered out of your 
position of perpetual inquiry. 



June Seventeenth. 

To go into solitude, a man needs to retire 
as much from his chamber as from society. 
I am not solitary whilst I read and write, 
though nobody is with me. But if a man 
would be alone, let him look at the stars. 



June Ei,s:hteenth. 



There is no object so foul that intense light 
wnll not make beautiful. 



EMERSON YEAR BOOK. 75 

« 

Jime Nineteenth. 

The inhabitants of cities suppose that the 
country landscape is pleasant only half the 
year. 



June Twentieth. 

Every natural act is graceful. Every he- 
roic act is also decent, and causes the place 
and the bystanders to shine. 



June Twenty -first. 

Nothing divine dies. All good is eternally 
reproductive. 



76 EMERSON YEAR BOOK. 



Jwie Twenty-second. 

Nothing is quite beautiful alone ; nothing 
but is beautiful in the whole. 



Jime Tiventy -third. 

Children and savages use only nouns or 
names of things, which they convert into 
verbs, and apply to analogous acts. 



June T'we7ity -fourth. 

A bell and a plough have each their use, 
and neither can do the office of the other. 
Water is good to drink, coal to bum, wool to 
wear ; but wool cannot be drunk, nor water 
spun, nor coal eaten. 



EMERSON YEAR BOOK. 77 



June Tiuenty -fifth. 

The foolish have no range in their scale, 
but suppose every man is as every other 
man. 



JiiJie Twenty-sixth. 

What is a farm but a mute gospel ? The 
chaff and the wheat, weeds, and plants, 
bhght, rain, insects, sun, — it is a sacred em- 
blem from the first furrow of spring to the 
last stack which the snow of winter overtakes 
in the fields. 



June Twenty-seventh. 

The moral influence of nature upon every 
individual is that amount of truth which it 
illustrates to him. 



7 8 EMERSON YEAR BOOK. 



June Twenty -eighth. 

A man who seldom rides needs only to get 
into a coach and traverse his own town, to 
turn the street into a puppet-show. 



June Twenty-ninth. 

Whilst thus the poet animates nature with 
his own thoughts, he differs from the phi- 
losopher only herein, that the one proposes 
Beauty as his main end : the other, Truth. 



June Thirtieth. 

Hot midsummer's petted crone, 
Sweet to me thy drowsy tone 
Tells of countless sunny hours, 
Long days, and solid banks of flowers. 



JULY. 

In July, the blue pontedemia, or pickerel-weed, 
blooms in large beds in the shallotu parts of our 
pleasant river. 



EMERSON YEAR BOOK. 8 I 



July First. 

'Twas one of the charmed days 

When the genius of God doth flow, 
The wind may aker twenty ways, 

A tempest cannot blow ; 
It may blow north, it still is warm ; 

Or south, it still is clear ; 
Or east, it smells like a clover-farm ; 

Or west, no thunder fear. 



July Second. 

Who is the better for the philosopher who 
conceals his accomplishments, and hides his 
thoughts from the waiting world? 

July Tliml. 

Society is full of infirm people, who inces- 
santly summon others to serve them. 



82 EMERSON YEAR BOOK. 



July Fourth. 

It is said that in our license of construing 
the Constitution, and in the despotism of 
pubhc opinion, we have no anchor. 



July Fifth. 

The Americans have many virtues, but 
they have not Faith and Hope. I know no 
two words whose meaning is more lost sight 
of. We use these words as if they were as 
obsolete as Selah and Amen. 



July Sixth. 

We talk of the world but we mean a few 
men and women. 



EMERSON YEAR BOOK. 83 



July Seventh. 

Thoughts walk and speak, and look with 
eyes at me, and transport me into new and 
magnificent scenes. 



July Eighth. 

There is no interest or institution so poor 
and withered, but if a new strong man could 
be born into it, he would immediately redeem 
and replace it. 



July Ninth. 

Every fact we have was brought here by 
some person ; and there is none that will not 
change and pass away before a person whose 
nature is broader than the person whom the 
fact in question represents. 



84 EMERSON YEAR BOOK. 



July Tenth. 

As the solar system moves forward in the 
heavens, certain stars open before us, and 
certain stars close up behind us ; so is man's 
life. 



July Eleventh. 

This Ennui, for which we Saxons had no 
name, this word of France has got a terrible 
significance. It shortens hfe, and bereaves 
the day of its light. 



July Twelfth. 

Conservatism makes no poetry, breathes 
no prayer, has no invention ; it is all mem- 
ory. 



EMERSON YEAR BOOK. 85 



July Thb'teenth. 

Reform has no gratitude, no prudence, no 
husbandry. 



July Foiirtee7ith. 

It makes a great difference to your figure 
and to your thought, whether your foot is 
advancing or receding. 



July Fiftee7ith. 

Old age begins in the nursery, and before 
the young American is put into jacket and 
trousers, he says, " I want something which 
I never saw before," and '' I wish I was 
not I." 



86 EMERSON YEAR BOOK. 



July Sixteenth. 

So many promising youths and never a 
finished man! 



July Seventeenth. 

We affect to dwell with our friends in their 
absence, but we do not ; when deed, word, 
or letter comes not, they let us go. 



July Eighteenth. 

We inflate our paper currency, we repair 
commerce with unlimited credit, and are 
presently visited with unHmited bankruptcy. 



EMERSON YEAR BOOK. 87 



July Nineteenth. 

We build railroads, we know not for what 
or for whom ; but one thing is certain, that 
we who build will receive the very smallest 
share of benefit. 



July Twentieth. 

Fathers wish to be fathers of the minds of 
their children, and behold with impatience 
a new character and way of thinking pre- 
suming to show itself in their own son or 
daughter. 



July Twe7ity -first. 

Difference of opinion is the one crime 
which kings never forgive. 



88 EMERSON YEAR BOOK. 



July Tiaenfy -second. 

The patriarchal form of government read- 
ily becomes despotic, as each person may see 
in his own family. 



Jti/y Twenty-third. 

In America, out of doors all seems a mar- 
ket ; in doors, an air-tight store of conven- 
tionalism. 



July Twenty -fourth. 

In the woods, we return to reason and 
faith. There I feel that nothing can befall 
me in life, — no disgrace, no calamity (leaving 
me my eyes), which nature cannot repair. 



EMERSON YEAR BOOK. 



July Tiventy -fifth. 



To the attentive eye, each moment of the 
year has its own beauty, and in the same 
field, it beholds every hour, a picture which 
was never seen before, and which shall never 
be seen again. 



July Twenty -sixth. 

The heavens change every moment, and 
reflect their glory or gloom on the plains 
beneath. 



July Twenty -seventh. 

We are taught by great actions that the 
universe is the property of every individual 
in it. 



90 EMERSON YEAR BOOK. 



July Tiventy-eighih. 

All men are in some degree impressed by 
the face of the world ; some men even to 
delight. This love of beauty is Taste. 



July Twenty-iihith. 

An enraged man is a lion, a cunning man 
is a fox, a firm man is a rock, a learned man 
is a torch. 



July ThirtieilL 

Light and darkness are our familiar ex- 
pression for knowledge and ignorance. 



EMERSON YEAR BOOK. 91 



July Thh'iy-Jirst. 

Throw a stone into the stream, and the 
circles that propagate themselves are the 
beautiful type of all influence. 



AUGUST. 



N'ature recites her lesson once more in a higher mood. 



EMERSON YEAR BOOK. 95 



August First. 

" O hasten ; " 'Tis our time, 

Ere yet the red summer 
Scorch our dehcate prime, 

Loved of bee, — the tawny hummer. 



August Second. 



The aspect of nature is devout. Like the 
figure of Jesus, she stands with bended head, 
and hands folded upon the breast. The 
happiest man is he who learns from nature 
the lesson of worship. 



August Third. 

Who can set bounds to the possibihties of 
man? 



g6 EMERSON YEAR BOOK. 



August Foui'th. 



Every revolution was first a thought in 
one man's mind, and when the same thought 
occurs to another man, it is the key to that 
era. 



August Fifth. 

All that Shakspeare says of the king, yon- 
der slip of a boy that reads in the corner 
feels to be true of himself. 



August Sixth. 

Praise is looked, homage tendered, love 
flows from mute nature, from the mountains 
and the hghts of the firmament. 



EMERSON YEAR BOOK. 97 



August Seventh. 

Every chemical substance, every plant, 
every animal in its growth, teaches the unity 
of cause, the variety of appearance. 



August Eighth. 

Nature is an endless combination and 
repetition of a very few laws. She hums the 
old well-known air through innumerable vari- 
ations. 



August Ninth. 

There are men whose manners have the 
same essential splendor as the simple and 
awful sculpture on the friezes of the Parthe- 
non, and the remains of the earliest Greek 
art. 



98 EMERSON YEAR BOOK. 



August Te7ith. 



The trivial experience of every day is al- 
ways verifying some old prediction to us, 
and converting into things the words and 
signs which we had heard and seen without 
heed. 



August EleveJith. 

The man who has seen the rising moon 
break out of the clouds at midnight has been 
present like an archangel at the creation of 
light and of the world. 



August Tivelfth. 

I have seen in the sky a chain of summer 
Hghtning which at once showed to me that 
the Greeks drew from nature when they 
painted the thunderbolt in the hand of Jove. 



EMERSON YEAR BOOK. 99 

August Thirteenth. 

There is no great and no small 
To the Soul that maketh all ; 
And where it cometh, all things are ; 
And it Cometh everywhere. 



August Fourteenth. 

Tantalus means the impossibility of drink- 
ing the waters of thought which are always 
gleaming and waving within sight of the 
soul. 



August Fifteenth. 

The transmigration of souls is no fable. 
I would it were ; but men and women are 
onlv half human. 



EMERSON YEAR BOOK. 



August Sixteenth. 

A man is a bundle of relations, a knot of 
roots, whose flower and fruitage is the world. 



August Seventeenth. 

To beheve your own thought, to beHeve 
that what is true for you in your private 
heart is true for all men, — that is genius. 



August Eighteenth. 

A man is relieved and gay when he has 
put his heart into his work and done his 
best ; but when he has said or done other- 
wise, shall give him no peace. 



EMERSON YEAR BOOK. 



A u crust Nineteenth . 



Trust thyself : every heart vibrates to that 
iron string. 



August Tiventleth. 

Accept the place the divine providence 
has found for you, the society of your con- 
temporaries, the connection of events. 



August Tiventy-first. 

Infancy conforms to nobody : all conform 
to it, so that one babe commonly makes 
four or five out of the adults who prattle and 
play to it. 



EMERSON YEAR BOOK. 



August Twenty -second. 

The nonchalance of boys who are sure of 
a dinner, and would disdain as much as a 
lord to do or say aught to concihate one, is 
the healthy attitude of human nature. 



August Twenty-third. 

Society is a joint-stock company, in which 
the members agree, for the better securing of 
his bread to each shareholder, to surrender 
the liberty and culture of the eater. 



August Twefity -fourth. 

Nothing is at last sacred but the integrity 
of your own mind. 



EMERSON YEAR BOOK. I 03 



August Tiventy -fifth. 

What I must do is all that concerns me, 
not what the people think. 



August Twenty -sixth. 

A fooHsh consistency is the hobgobhn of 
httle minds, adored by httle statesmen and 
philosophers and divines. 



August Tiventy -sevetith. 
To be great is to be misunderstood. 



104 EMERSON YEAR BOOK. 



August Tiventy -eighth. 

With consistency a great soul has simply 
nothing to do. He may as well concern 
himself with his shadow on the wall. 



August Tive?ity-7iiiith. 

Men imagine that they communicate their 
virtue or vice only by overt actions, and do 
not see that virtue or vice emit a breath 
everv moment. 



August TJiirtieth, 

Whenever a mind is simple, and receives 
a divine wisdom, old things pass away, — 
means, teachers, texts, temples, fall ; it hves 
now, and absorbs past and future into the 
present hour. 



EMERSON YEAR BOOK. 105 



August Thirty -first. 

When a man lives with God, his voice 
shall be as sweet as the murmur of the brook 
and the rustle of the corn. 



SEPTEMBER. 

One han'est from thy Jield, 
Homeward brought the oxen strong. 



EMERSON YEAR BOOK. 



September First. 

Fairest, choose the fairest members 

Of our hthe society ; 
Jmie's glories and September's 

Show our love and piety. 



1C9 



September Second. 

Who has more obedience than I masters 
me, though he should not raise a finger. 



Septemlier Third. 

Power is in nature the essential measure 
of right. Nature suffers nothing to remain 
in her kingdoms which cannot help itself. 



EMERSON YEAR BOOK. 



September Fourth. 

Society is a wave. The wave moves on- 
ward, but the water of which it is composed 
does not. 



September Fifth. 

The waves of the sea do not more speedily 
seek a level from their loftiest tossing, than 
the varieties of condition tend to equalize 
themselves. 



September Sixth. 

All things are double, one against another. 
— Tit for tat ; an eye for an eye ; a tooth 
for a tooth ; blood for blood ; measure for 
measure ; love for love. — Give and it shall 
be given you. 



EMERSON YEAR BOOK. 



September Seventh. 



You cannot do wrong without suffering 
wrong. 



September Eighth. 
The borrower runs in his own debt. 



September Ninth. 

The wise man throws himself on the side 
of his assailants. It is more his interest than 
it is theirs to find his weak point. 



112 EMERSON YEAR BOOK. 



September Tenth. 
Man's life is a progress and not a station. 



September Eleventh. 

It is natural and beautiful that childhood 
should inquire, and maturity teach ; but it is 
time enough to answer questions when they 
are asked. 



September Twelfth, 

The simplicity of the universe is very dif- 
ferent from the simphcity of a machine. 



EMERSON YEAR BOCK. II3 



September Thirieejith. 

A little consideration of what takes place 
around us every day would show us that a 
higher law than that of our will regulates 
events. 



September Foitrteefith. 

A man is a method, a progressive arrange- 
ment ; a selecting principle, gathering his 
like to him, wherever he goes. 



September Fifteenth. 

It is vain to attempt to keep a secret from 
one who has a right to know it. It will tell 
itself. 



114 EMERSON YEAR BOOK. 



September Sixteenth. 

The mood into which a friend can bring 
us, is his dominion over us. 



September Seven tee fith. 

Hideous dreams are exaggerations of the 
sins of the day. 



September Eighteenth. 
All mankind love a lover. 



EMERSON YEAR BOOK. 115 



Sept€7nber Ni?iete€nth. 

Introduce a base person among gentle- 
men ; it is all to no purpose ; he is not their 
fellow. Every society protects itself. The 
company is perfectly safe, and he is not one 
of them, though his body is in the room. 



Septei7iber Twe7itieth. 

The way to speak and write what shall 
not go out of fashion is, to speak and write 
sincerely. 

September Tweiity-first. 

The permanence of all books is fixed by 
no effort friendly or hostile, but by their own 
specific gravity, or the intrinsic importance 
of their contents to the constant mind of 
man. 



Il6 EMERSON YEAR BOOK. 



September Twenty -second. 

The great man knew not that he was great. 
It took a century or two for that fact to 
appear. 



September Twe7ity-third. 

The laws of disease, physicians say, are 
as beautiful as the laws of health. 



September Twenty-fou7'th. 



Truth has not single victories ; all things 
ot 
but errors and lies. 



are its organs, — not only dust and stones 



EMERSON YEAR BOOK. I17 



September Twenty-fifth. 

The world is full of judgment days, and 
into every assembly that a man enters, in 
every action he attempts, he is gauged and 
stamped. 



September Twenty-sixth. 

Never a magnanimity fell to the ground, 
but there is some heart to greet and accept 
it unexpectedly. 



September Tiventy -seventh . 

A man passes for what he is worth. What 
he is, engraves itself on his face, on his form 
on his fortunes, in letters of light. 



Il8 EMERSON YEAR BOOK. 



September Twenty -eighth. 

Behind us, as we go, all things assume 
pleasing forms, as clouds do far off. 



Septe7tiber Twe7ity-ni?ith. 

Go put your creed into your deed, 
Nor speak with double tongue! 



September Thirtieth. 
W^e pain ourselves to please nobody. 



OCTOBER, 

The beauty that shimmers in the yellow afternoon 
of October, — who ever could clutch it? 



EMERSON iEAJi BOOK. 



Octobei- First. 



These halcyons may be looked for with a 
little more assurance in that pure October 
weather, which we distinguish by the name 
of the Indian summer. 



October Second. 

As sunbeams stream through liberal space 
And nothing jostle or displace, 
So waved the pine-tree through my thought 
And fanned the dreams it never brought. 



October Third. 

The day, immeasurably long, sleeps over 
the broad hills and warm wide fields. To 
have lived through all its sunny hours seems 
longevity enough. 



122 EMERSON YEAR BOOK. 



October Fourth. 

I chide society, I embrace solitude, and 
yet I am not so ungrateful as not to see the 
wise, the lovely, and the noble-minded as 
from time to time they pass my gate. 



October Fifth. 

My friends have come to me unsought. 
The great God gave them to me. 



October Sixth. 

We over-estimate the conscience of our 
friend. His goodness seems better than our 
goodness, his nature finer, his temptations 
less. Our own thought sounds new and 
larger from his mouth. 



EMERSON YEAR BOOK. 123 



October Seventh. 

In strictness, the soul does not respect 
men as it respects itself. 



October Eighth. 

Only the star dazzles ; the planet has a 
faint, moon-like ray. 



October Ninth. 

What a perpetual disappointment is act- 
ual society, even of the virtuous and gifted. 



124 EMERSON YEAR BOOK. 



October Tentk. 

Bashfulness and apathy are a tough husk, 
in which a dehcate organization is protected 
from premature ripening. It would be lost, 
if it knew itself before any of the best souls 
were yet ripe enough to know and own it. 



October Eleventh. 

Love, which is the essence of God, is not 
for levity, but for the total worth of man. 



October Twelfth. 

A friend is a person with whom I may be 
sincere. Before him I may think aloud. 



EMERSON YEAR BOOK. 125 



October Thirteenth. 

Sincerity is the luxury allowed, like dia- 
dems and authority, only to the highest rank, 
that being permitted to speak truth, as hav- 
ing none above it to court or conform to. 



October Fourteenth. 

But to most of us Society shows not its 
face and eye, but its side and back. 



October Fiftee7ith. 

To stand in true relations with men in a 
false age is worth a fit of insanity, is it not? 



26 EMERSON YEAR BOOK. 



October Sixteenth. 

I much prefer the company of plough- 
boys and tin-pedlers, to the silken and per- 
fumed amity which celebrates its days of en- 
counter by a frivolous display, by rides in a 
curricle, and dinners at the best taverns. 



October Seventeenth. 

No two men but, being left alone with 
each other, enter into simpler relations. Yet 
it is affinity that determines which two shall 
converse. 

October Eighteenth. 

Unrelated men give litde joy to each 
other; will never suspect the latent power 
of each. 



EMERSON YEAR BOOK. 127 



October Nineteenth. 

The only reward of virtue is virtue ; the 
only way to have a friend is to be one. 



October Twentieth. 

My prudence consists in avoiding and go- 
ing without, not in the inventing of means 
and methods, not in adroit steering, not in 
gentle repairing. 



October Tzuenty-Jirst. 

Yet I love facts, and hate lubricity and 
people without perception. 



128 EMERSON YEAR BOOK. 



October Twenty-second. 

The spurious prudence, making the senses 
final, is the god of sots and cowards, and is 
the subject of all comedy. It is nature's 
joke, and therefore literature's. 



October Tivejity -third. 

Do what we can, summer will have its 
flies ; if we walk in the woods, we must feed 
mosquitoes ; if we go a-fishing, we must ex- 
pect a wet coat. 



October Twenty -fourth. 

But the discomfort of unpunctuality, of 
confusion of thought about facts, of inatten- 
tion to the wants of to-morrow, is of no 
nation. 



EMERSON YEAR BOOK. I 29 



October Twenty -fifth. 

If the hive be disturbed by rash and stupid 
hands, instead of honey, it will yield us bees. 



October Twenty -sixth. 

Yet what is more lonesome and sad than 
the sound of a whetstone or mower's rifle, 
when it is too late in the season to make 
hay? 



October Twenty-seventh. 

This perpendicularity we demand of all 
the figures in this picture of life. Let them 
stand on their feet, and not float and swing. 
Let us know where to find them. 



130 EMERSON YEAR BOOK. 



October Twenty -eighth. 

The prudence which secures an outward 
well-being is not to be studied by one set of 
men, whilst heroism and holiness are studied 
by another, but they are reconcilable. 



. October Twenty -ninth. 

Every man is actually weak, and appar- 
ently strong. To himself, he seems weak; 
to others, formidable. You are afraid of 
Grim ; but Grim also is afraid of you. 



October Thirtieth. 

Far off, men swell and bully, and threat- 
en ; bring them hand to hand, and they are 
a feeble folk. 



EMERSON YEAR BOOK. 



October Thirty-first. 



131 



We cannot bandy words with nature, or 
deal with her as we deal with persons. 



NOVEMBER, 

I like gmy days and atittinin and lainter weather. 



EMERSON YEAR BOOK. 



November First. 



135 



A squirrel leaping from bough to bough, 
and making the wood but one wide tree for 
his pleasure, fills the eye not less than a lion, 
— is beautiful, self-sufficing, and stands then 
and there for nature. 



November SecoJid. 

Though we travel the world over to find 
the beautiful, we must carry it with us, or 
we find it not. 

November Third. 

I do not wonder that Newton, with an at- 
tention habitually engaged on the paths of 
planets and suns, should have wondered 
what the Earl of Pembroke found to admire 
in " stone dolls." 



136 EMERSON YEAR BOOK. 



November Fourth. 

Picture and sculpture are the celebrations 
and festivities of form. But true art is never 
fixed, but always flowing. 



November Fifth, 

The sweetest music is not in the oratorio, 
but in the human voice when it speaks from 
its instant life tones of tenderness, truth and 
courage. 



November Sixth. 

A great man is a new statue in every atti- 
tude and action. 



EMERSON YEAR BOOK. 



November Seventh. 



137 



A beautiful woman is a picture which 
drives all beholders nobly mad. 



Novembei' EightJi. 

Life may be lyric or epic, as well as a 
poem or a romance. 



November Ninth. 

A popular novel, a theatre, or a ball-room 
makes us feel that we are all paupers in the 
almshouse of this world, without dignity, 
without skill, or industry. 



138 EMERSON YEAR BOOK. 



November Tenth. 



The fountains of invention and beauty in 
modern society are all but dried up. 



November Eleventh. 

Men are not well pleased with the figure 
they make in their own imaginations, and 
they flee to art, and convey their better sense 
in an oratorio, a statue, or a picture. 



November Twelfth. 

As long as I hear truth, I am bathed by 
a beautiful element, and am not conscious 
of any limits to my nature. 



EMERSON YEAR BOCK. 



November Thirteenth. 



139 



Jesus says, Leave father, mother, house, 
and lands, and follow me. Who leaves all 
receives more. This is as true intellectu- 
ally as morally. 



November Fourteenth. 

We were put into our bodies, as fire is 
put into a pan, to be carried about ; but 
there is no accurate adjustment between the 
spirit and the organ, much less is the latter 
the germination of the former. 



November Fifteenth. 

The young man reveres men of genius, 
because, to speak truly, they are more him- 
self than he is. 



140 EMERSON YEAR BOOK. 

Nove?nber Sixteenth. 

Nature enhances her beauty to the eye of 
loving men, from their behef that the poet is 
beholding her shows at the same time. 

November Seventeenth. 

I know not how it is that we need an in- 
terpreter; but the great majority of men 
seem to be minors, who have not yet come 
into possession of their own, or mutes, who 
cannot report the conversation they have 
had with nature. 

November Eighteenth. 

There is no man who does not anticipate 
a supersensual utility in the sun, and stars, 
earth and water. These stand and wait to 
render him a peculiar service. 



EMERSON YEAR BOOK. 141 



November Ninetee7ith. 

The poet is the sayer, the namer, and 
represents beauty. He is a sovereign, and 
stands on the centre. 



November Twefitieih. 

For the world is not painted or adorned, 
but is from the beginning beautiful. 



November Twenty -first. 

Words and deeds are quite indifferent 
modes of the divine energy. Words are 
also actions, and actions are a kind of words. 



142 EMERSON YEAR BOOK. 



November Twenty -second. 

For the experience of each new age re- 
quires a new confession, and the world seems 
always waiting for its poet. 



November Twenfy-third. 

A beauty not expHcable is dearer than a 
beauty which we can see the end of. 



November T7venty -fourth. 

As the traveller who has lost his way 
throws his reins on his horse's neck, and 
trusts to the instinct of the animal to find 
his road, so must we do with the divine 
animal who carries us through this world. 



EMERSON VEAR BOOK. 1 43 



November Twenty -fifth. 

If the imagination intoxicates the poet, it 
is not inactive in other men. 



November Twenty-sixth . 

I think nothing is of any value in books, 
excepting the transcendental and extraordi- 
nary. 



Noz 'ember Twenty -seventh . 

The fate of the poor shepherd, who, 
blinded and lost in the snow-storm, perishes 
in a drift within a few feet of his cottage 
door, is an emblem of the state of man. On 
the brink of the waters of life and truth, we 
are miserably dying. 



[44 EMERSON YEAR BOOK. 



November Twe7ity -eighth. 

Sleep lingers all our lifetime about our 
eyes, as night hovers all day in the boughs 
of the fir-tree. 



JVovember Twenty-7iinth. 

We do not know to-day whether we are 
busy or idle. In times when we thought 
ourselves indolent, we have afterwards dis- 
covered that much was accomplished, and 
much was begun in us. 



Novembei- Thirtieth. 

Every ship is a romantic object, except 
that we sail in. Embark, and the romance 
quits our vessel, and hangs on every other 
sail in the horizon. 



DECEMBER. 

Announced by all the tru7npets of the sky, 
Ar7'ives the snoza, and driving o'er the fields. 
Seems nozuhere to alight. 



EMERSON YEAR BOOK. 147 

December First. 

The whited air 

Hides hills and woods, the riv^er and the 

heaven, 
And veils the farm-house at the garden's end. 

The sled and traveller stopped, the courier's 

feet 
Delayed, all friends shut out, the housemates 

sit 
Around the radiant fire-place enclosed 
In a tumultuous privacy of storm. 

December Second. 

People grieve and bemoan themselves, 
but it is not half so bad with them as they 
say. 

Decej7iber TJiird. 

An innavigable sea washes with silent 
waves between us and the things we aim at 
and converse with. 



48 EMERSON YEAR BOOK. 



December Fourth. 

Nature does not like to be observed, and 
likes that we should be her fools and play- 
mates. 



December Fifth, 

The only thing grief has taught me, is to 
know how shallow it is. 



December Sixth. 

Life is a train of moods like a string of 
beads, and, as we pass through them, they 
prove to be many colored lenses which paint 
the world their own hue, and each shows 
only what lies in its focus. 



EMERSON YEAR BOOK. 1 49 



December Seventh. 

There are always sunsets, and there is al- 
ways genius ; but only a few hours so serene 
that we can relish nature or criticism. 



December Eighth. 

Temperament also enters fully into the 
system of illusions, and shuts us in a prison 
of glass which we cannot see. There is an 
optical illusion about every person we meet. 



December Ninth. 

We see young men who owe us a new 
world, so readily and lavishly they promise, 
but they never acquit the debt ; they die 
young and dodge the account : or if they 
live, they lose themselves in the crowd. 



150 EMERSON YEAR BOOK. 



December Tenth. 



The grossest ignorance does not disgust 
like the impudent knowingness. 



December Elevefith. 

When" at night I look at the moon and 
stars, I seem stationary, and they to hurry. 



December Twelfth. 

Our friends early appear to us as repre- 
sentatives of certain ideas, which they never 
pass or exceed. 



EMERSON YEAR BOOK. 151 

December ThirteeiitJi. 

A man is like a bit of Labrador spar, 
which has no lustre as you turn it in your 
hand, until you come to a particular angle ; 
then it shows deep and beautiful colors. 



December Fourteenth. 

We do what we must, and call it by the 
best names we can, and would fain have the 
praise of having intended the result which 
ensues. 



December Fifteenth. 

Of course, it needs the whole society to 
give the symmetry we seek. The party- 
colored wheel must revolve very fast to ap- 
pear white. 



52 EMERSON YEAR BOOK. 



December Sixteenth. 



We need change of objects. Dedication 
to one thought is quickly odious. 



December Seveiitee?ith. 



If a man should consider the nicety of fl 
the passage of a piece of bread down his 
throat, he would starve. 



December Eisrhteenth 



i 



Life is not intellectual or critical, but 
sturdy. Its chief good is for well-mixed 
people who can enjoy what they find with- 
out question. 



EMERSON YEAR BOOK. I 53 

December Nineteenth, 

I am thankful for small mercies. I 
compared notes with one of my friends who 
expects everything of the universe, and is 
disappointed when anything is less than the 
best, and I found that I begin at the other 
extreme, expecting nothing, and am always 
full of thanks for moderate goods. 



December Twentieth. 

The middle region of our being is the 
temperate zone. We may chmb into the 
thin and cold realm of pure geometry and 
lifeless science, or sink into that of sensation. 
Between these extremes is the equator of 
life, of thought, of spirit, of poetry, — a nar- 
row belt. 



54 EMERSON VEAR BOOK. 



December Twenty -first. 

The most attractive class of people are 
those who are powerful obliquely, and not 
by the direct stroke : men of genius, but not 
yet accredited ; one gets the cheer of their 
light without paying too great a tax. 



December Twenty-second. 

We know who is benevolent, by quite 
other means than the amount of subscription 
to soup societies. 



December Twenty-third. 

Those who live to the future must always 
appear selfish to those who live to the pres- 
ent. 



EMERSON YEAR BOOK. 155 

December Twenty -fourth . 

I know nothing which hfe has to offer so 
satisfying as the profound good understand- 
ing, which can subsist, after much exchange 
of good offices, between two virtuous men, 
each of whom is sure of himself, and sure of 
his friend. 

December Twenty -fifth. 

A divine person is the prophecy of the 
mind ; a friend is the hope of the heart. 
Our beatitude waits for the fulfilment of 
these two in one. 

December Twenty -sixth. 

There will always be in society certain 
persons who are mercuries of its approba- 
tion, and whose glance will at any time de- 
termine for the curious their standing in the 
world. 



156 EMERSON YEAR BOOK. 



December Twenty -seventh. 

Moral qualities rule the world, but at short 
distances the senses are despotic. 



December Twenty -eighth. 



3 



A beautiful form is better than a beautiful 
face ; a beautiful behavior is better than a 
beautiful form : it gives a higher pleasure 
than statues or pictures ; it is the finest of 
the fine arts. 



December T7ae?ity-7iifith . 

Without the rich heart, wealth is an ugly- 
beggar. 



EMERSON YEAR BOOK. I 57 



Decetnbcr Thirtieth, 

Why have only two or three ways of life, 
and not thousands? Every man is wanted, 
and no man is wanted much. 



Decenibc7' Thirty -first. 

It is the secret of the world that all things 
subsist, and do not die, but only retire a 
little from sight, and afterwards return again. 






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